Even more seek her out because they “want a name that's outside the top 500 or even the top 1,000.”

 Even more seek her out because they “want a name that's outside the top 500 or even the top 1,000.”

“Individuality is the biggest trend,” says Ficarra. “People wanting to spell things differently, people wanting a name that no one else is gonna have…. That is ultimately where we're headed: Parents want their baby to be the only one with this name in their circle.”

Some of the consultants I spoke with hint at another motivation—a perhaps unconscious one but a motivation nonetheless—behind this drive for individuality: branding. This is the first generation of parents to be fluent in social media; it's only natural they'd think about their own child's online presence. “It's like, Well, are you going to be able to grab that Instagram handle or that website URL?” says Sophie Kihm, the editor in chief of popular baby-name website Nameberry, which offers its own consultations to future parents. “No one has brought that up to me in a consultation, but I think some parents at least are thinking about that.”